Boko Haram Just Declared A 'Caliphate' In Nigeria, The Second One This Summer

FILE - This file image made available Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2012, taken from video posted by Boko Haram sympathizers, shows the leader of the radical Islamist sect Imam Abubakar Shekau. Boko Haram has claimed responsibility for the April 15, 2014, mass abduction of nearly 300 teenage schoolgirls in northeast Nigeria. Even before the kidnapping, the U.S. government was offering up to a $7 million reward for information leading to the arrest of Shekau, whom the U.S. has labeled a specially designate | ASSOCIATED PRESS

Nigeria's Boko Haram have become the second Islamist militant group in just two months to declare a "caliphate", in a video message from its leader.

The news agency AFP obtained a video shot in the northeast Nigerian town of Gwoza, in Borno state, which shows leader Abubakar Shekau declaing a new caliphate, an Islamic state, in the city.

"Thanks be to Allah who gave victory to our brethren in Gwoza and made it part of the Islamic caliphate," Abubakar Shekau said in the 52-minute video, according to AFP. "By the grace of Allah we will not leave the town. We have come to stay."

Gwoza is now "nothing to do with Nigeria" he said. The group, designated a terror organisation by the US, control large chunks of territory in Borno state and some in the neighbouring Yobe state.

"By the grace of Allah we will not leave the town. We have come to stay," said Shekau, who has been designated a global terrorist by the United States and sanctioned by the UN Security Council.

The United Nations humanitarian office (OCHA) earlier this month confirmed reports that Gwoza was under rebel control.

Boko Haram is also believed to be in control of other areas near Gwoza in southern Borno, as well as large swathes of territory in northern Borno and at least one town in neighbouring Yobe state. Nigerian soldiers have reportedly refused to deploy to retake the town, because of a lack of adequate weapons.

A video which Boko Haram claim show the missing Nigerian schoolgirls, kidnapped earlier this year

But Boko Haram is technically only a nickname. Their preferred name is Jama'atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda'awati Wal-Jihad, which means "people committed to the propagation of the prophet's teachings and jihad".

In June, the group known as Isis or Isil which controls vast swathes of eastern Syrian and northern Iraq declared that territory a caliphate, naming itself Islamic State. Its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, is referred to as Caliph Ibrahim. The Caliphate, where Shia Muslims, Christians and minority sects have been persecuted, massacred or forced to flee, has no international recognition.

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Boko Haram: Nigeria's Homegrown Terror

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A female student stands in a burnt classroom at Maiduguri Experimental School, a private nursery, primary and secondary school burnt by the Islamist group Boko Haram to keep children away from school in Maiduguri, northeastern Nigeria, May 12, 2012.(PIUS UTOMI EKPEI/AFP/GettyImages)

In a Sunday, Dec. 25, 2011 file photo, onlookers gather around a car destroyed in a blast next to St. Theresa Catholic Church in Madalla, Nigeria after an explosion ripped through a Catholic church during Christmas Mass near Nigeria's capital Sunday, killing scores of people, officials said. A radical Muslim sect, Boko Haram, claimed the attack and another bombing near a church in the restive city of Jos. (AP Photo/Sunday Aghaeze, File)

In a Sunday, Dec. 25, 2011 file photo, medical officials try to treat a victim of a bomb blast at a Catholic church near Nigeria's capital at Suleja General Hospital in Suleja, Nigeria. An explosion ripped through a Catholic church during Christmas Mass near Nigeria's capital Sunday, killing at least 25 people, officials said. A radical Muslim sect, Boko Haram, claimed the attack and another bombing near a church in the restive city of Jos. (AP Photo/Dele Jones, File)

This file image made available from Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2012, taken from video posted by Boko Haram sympathizers shows the leader of the radical Islamist sect Imam Abubakar Shekau. (AP Photo, File)

Bodies of people alleged to have been killed in a Friday attack on a town hall meeting of the Christian Igbo ethnic group lie on the floor in a hospital morgue in Mubi, in the Adamawa state of northern Nigeria, Saturday, Jan. 7, 2012. The town hall attack, which left at least 20 dead, is one of a string of deadly attacks claimed by radical Muslim sect Boko Haram. (AP Photo)

An anti bomb police officer collect soft drink can bombs recovered from islamic militants in Kano, Nigeria, on Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012. Police said Tuesday that members of the radical Islamist group Boko Haram dressed in uniforms resembling those of soldiers and police officers when they launched their attack Friday in Kano. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

In this Monday, Oct. 8, 2012 photo taken with a mobile phone, a police officer walks past a burnt out shopping mall in Maiduguri, Nigeria. (AP Photo/Abdulkareem Haruna)

In this frame grab from TV footage shot by the Nigeria television authority on Monday, Oct. 8, 2012 but aired Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2012, shows people lying down (condition of people unknown) on a street in Maiduguri, Nigeria. (AP Photo / Nigeria Television Authority)

A partially burnt down communication tower destroyed by Boko Haram in Maiduguri, Nigeria, Friday, Sept. 7, 2012. A radical Islamist sect claimed responsibility Friday for attacks on mobile phone towers which have crippled communications in Nigeria's northeast, as security forces struggling to control the violence said they had gunned down seven suspected sect members. (AP Photo/Haruna Umar)

Burnt our cars are seeing at the business and skills center following gun battle and explosions by the Boko Haram sect, in Potiskum, Nigeria, Saturday, Oct. 20, 2012. (AP/Photo Adamu Adamu)

Burnt out school block following a gun battle and explosions by the Boko Haram sect in Potiskum, Nigeria, Saturday, Oct. 20 , 2012. (AP Photo/Adamu Adamu)

In this Wednesday, March 21, 2012 file photo, suspected members of the radical Islamist sect Boko Haram, are detained by the military, in Bukavu Barracks in Kano state, Nigeria after an attack on a police headquarters, the home of a senior police officer and setting fire to a nearby bank. (AP Photos/Salisu Rabiu-file)